If the Bogue Chitto National Wildlife Refuge sounds like a place where it would be hard to track a shot deer or hog, you are correct. That’s why many veteran hunters on this thick tract of public land do everything they can to try to drop an animal where it stands.
Take Robert Duncan from Bogalusa for example. This die-hard Bogue Chitto hunter would rather miss a deer entirely than wound it only to have it die in a briar patch somewhere.
“That’s why I shoot for the base of the neck,” he said. “I’ve never shot a deer in the neck that didn’t immediately drop where it stood. And if I miss on a neck shot, the odds are that I make a clean miss, and that deer is going to run away unscathed.”
An alternative to making a neck shot for Duncan would be to aim for breaking an animal’s shoulder. No deer or hog is going to go very far with a broken shoulder. And a good shot on a shoulder is going to do enough damage to the organs behind it that the animal will die quickly.
“I want to walk up and grab that deer’s horns right where I shot him and be able to drag him off,” Duncan said. “Once he gets in all that thick stuff, your chances of finding him go way, way down.”
